Cinco de Mayo Pizza Party

Every year curling season is long. Just over 6 months of playing over three times a week makes for a grueling experience and, even after a championship winning season at the club, the prospect of warmer weather and a summer full of free time is the best thing I can think of. To celebrate that free time, I had a group of curlers come over to enjoy some homemade pizza in three different varieties.

Dough

Used the Serious Eats NY Style Pizza Recipe in 6 small batches to accommodate my smallish food processor container. Modifications include just over doubling the salt content and adding a bit more yeast. The extra yeast definitely made the dough more active during the overnight proof in the fridge and during the warming period prior to baking. I liked the extra flavor generated from it and will probably continue adding a bit more yeast and doubling the salt in the future. All pizzas were cooked on a 1/4″ Baking Steel under a 500 degree broiler in an electric oven.

Margherita

Margherita 2013-05-05

Toppings for the Margheritas this time were simple with a San Marzano based sauce food processed with homemade garlic olive oil and some Kosher salt and cracked pepper, fresh mozzarella and cut basil leaves with a few grinds of sea salt to finish. Ended up making three Margheritas for the party and all three turned pretty well. Took me a couple pies to remember that corn meal on my bamboo peel really makes the transfer process simpler and the experience that much easier.

Ramp Pizza with Bacon

Ramp Pizza with Bacon 2013-05-05

The sauce for this pie was the homemade garlic olive oil (1 cup of olive oil cooked lightly with 4 cloves of Microplaned garlic until fragrant) topped with fresh mozz, ramps (both stems and leaves) and local bacon. The ramp stems were placed on with the cheese and bacon with the leaves only cooking for the last couple mins to make sure we didn’t lose the fresh taste. Combination of flavors was exactly what I imagined with a touch of smoke and light garlic with a touch of sharpness from the stems. So happy that Small World Food had some beautiful ramps at the Rochester Public Market on Saturday!

Lengua

Home Mexi 2013-05-05

The lengua pizza was by far the most labor intensive of the three offerings served on Cinco de Mayo. The day before the Seven Bridges beef tongue was braised for 5 hours using chicken stock, onions, garlic, carrots, oregano and plenty of salt and pepper and then pulled apart after cooling. Tomatillos, onions and poblano peppers were oven roasted, pureed and then cooked down to finish cooking the onions. Lime, salt and garlic were added to taste and allowed to mellow overnight. The pie was topped with the salsa, queso fresco and panela cheeses and the lengua. Once cooked the ramp stems (in substitute for white onion since we had some extra sitting around) and the cilantro were added along with a squeeze of lime juice. Great balance of acidity and creaminess both from the cheese and the lengua. The Mexican taco fillings really translated well to a pizza and I’ll keep on experimenting with different Mexican toppings and other cuisines in the future. Really happy with how this one turned out!